


Part of Her World

by SleepyKalena



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Human-Merfolk Political Drama, Pre-Relationship, Romance, The Author Has No Chill With Writing, The Little Mermaid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-03-09 13:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13482720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyKalena/pseuds/SleepyKalena
Summary: Humans and merfolk never interact with each other. In the rare instance that they do, it always ends in death- a price merfolk normally have to pay.And yet, despite these warnings, Cassian still surfaces above the ocean to observe the humans with theirs scents and sounds andfeet. He enjoyed the change in scenery that came with being above water, but still he kept a safe distance, merely observing, always intrigued, always curious to know what it's like to live as a human. He loved the feeling of breathing in the crisp air and enjoying the clarity of sounds around him, but didn't feel compelled to find a way to live among them.That is, until he fell in love with the princess.[This is The Little Mermaid AU one-shot that I didn't expect to write but abunchof people asked for anyway.]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thereigning_lorelai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereigning_lorelai/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this Tumblr post](https://sleepykalena.tumblr.com/post/169925266538/thestarbirdfromtheashes-imsfire2) with additional inspiration by [this moodboard](http://runakvaed.tumblr.com/post/161167197543/rebelcaptain-merfolk-au-based-on) from another mermaid!AU fic.
> 
> I still can't believe I'm writing this.
> 
> Storyline inspired partly by the classic Little Mermaid tale, but mostly from the Disney film version.

Cassian was going to turn 18 soon. He couldn’t have been more excited.

“You’ll get to surface above the waters for the first time soon, my dear,” Cassian’s mother said as she groomed his dark, damp sand-colored hair. “You’ll get to see what life on land is like.”

“Do you think I’ll get to see a human?” He asked excitedly. His birthday was only a week away, after all, and he grew tired of hearing his older brothers come back from the surface with their own tales about humans and the world above. His tail fin twitched in excitement at the mere thought of getting to confirm these stories for himself.

“Who knows?” she mused. “Maybe you will. Just promise me you’ll keep a safe distance, my dear Shrimp,” she said, planting a kiss on the top of his now-tidy hair.

Cassian crossed his arms and pouted. Just because he was the youngest- and scrawniest- in the Andor school of merfolk didn’t mean that everyone else had to get on board with calling him “Shrimp”.

He’d make an exception for his own mother, though. It wasn’t _her_ fault that everyone tried to use it to belittle him.

Still, the thought of surfacing, this rite of passage…it excited him.

Without thinking, his tail fluoresced a neon red in a distinctive pattern, and his mother laughed. “You really _are_ excited, aren’t you?”

He whipped around to look at his mother and groaned, his face flush with embarrassment. He had to learn to keep his feelings under control if he wanted to fluoresce as little as possible around other merfolk. Any large burst of emotion could trigger it, and he preferred not to stick out so much.

“Mom, please,” he pleaded with a whine.

She laughed softly. “That’s right, I’m sorry, my dear, I’ll try to keep it at a minimum for your Surfacing.”

* * *

Cassian couldn’t even remember the week as it flashed by; he was far too excited counting down the days to his 18th birthday.

But suddenly, as the days turned into mere hours before his birthday, a dread came over him. It came over him like a nervous excitement, with a hint of fear- what if people were just exaggerating their stories about the humans he’d seen? What if they were actually as vicious as he’s heard from the other schools? What if the girls just had terrible taste in what was attractive and humans were just ugly?

In about an hour, he was going to find out.

Although most Surfacing ceremonies were attended by merfolk within one’s school, other close friends from other schools weren’t an uncommon sight. Davits Draven, who served the kingdom as Head of Intelligence for Atlantica’s Alliance Fleet, was one such merfolk.

Cassian’s tail twitched at the sight of Draven, who stared him down with the most neutral of faces. It was always hard to tell what the merman was thinking, but he supposed that was just his job. Cassian did look up to him quite a bit, however, having been a considerable presence in Cassian’s family since his father’s passing, so he grinned comfortably at his appearance.

He waved nervously at Draven as his brothers lined up to pass him up to the surface, and Draven nodded curtly right back.

The light peeked in, bending and shining gently with the ebb and flow of the waves above the surface as Cassian’s brothers lined up to bring him closer and closer to the surface, giving him an encouraging push (and the occasional punch in the arm, as was the norm for each of his birthdays).

“Deep breath, Shrimp!” Cassian’s oldest brother teased.

“What?” Cassian had no idea what he was referring to, until he remembered what he learned from the rest of his school about breathing.

Cassian was only able to take half a gulp of breath as his oldest brother gave Cassian the final push and his whole upper body surfaced.

His lungs burned and his eyes dried suddenly, feeling the sudden whoosh of air from the surface. He coughed and clutched at the gills at the sides of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut.

 _“Make sure you take a deep breath before you surface, my dear Shrimp,”_ he remembered hearing from his mother shortly before his Surfacing. _“It’ll take a while for the mucous covering your human features to wear away so you can breathe and see like a human.”_

How could he have forgotten such an important reminder? He couldn’t believe he was that nervous.

 _Stop panicking_ , he tried telling himself as he gasped desperately for air. His body coiled slightly at the transition and his head became fuzzy and light.

 _One…two…three…four…five…_ Cassian slowly counted, giving himself something to focus on other than his increasing lack of oxygen. Over and over he counted, trying to wait out the transition period for his nose to take over the task of breathing. Just when he thought he was going to pass out from not being able to breathe, the worst of it was over and he felt his gills close firmly shut.

He took another gasp of air, his first breath of surface air, and opened his eyes hesitantly. The glands were all functioning- his eyes could see just fine and there was just the right amount of moisture. The air was dry and crisp, and he relished the new sensations he was feeling just being above water.

_Why would anyone stay underwater for the rest of their lives?_

It was only morning, but already Cassian didn’t want this day to end. He felt renewed.

His ears were picking up vibrations still, but they translated to clear, crisp, above-water _sounds_.

“Clear and crisp” were probably two words he’d be using all day today as he enjoyed the sound of a breeze, of the flap of seagull wings, of ocean waves crashing into rocks, and-

The giggle of a young girl along the beachside up ahead.

He squinted into the distance. She seemed to be a small thing from where he floated.

So he swam closer, cautiously.

As he approached the source of the noise, more things came into view. There was a steep cliff at the end of the sands of the beach, though a winding path could be seen leading up to higher ground. Above the cliff, he could see the very tip of a pointy building…a castle, perhaps? _So there are castles in the human world as well._

He noticed that the girl wasn’t really alone; rather, she had just wandered off from the rest of the humans clustered together in another part of the beachside, not having noticed her absence.

Cassian watched this girl take her slippers off and lift her long, draping clothing up slightly as she walked closer to the water, revealing her legs. As the waves weakened from crashing into the nearby crag, she walked closer to the water and she let out an audible shiver as the now-gentle waves tickled her toes.

Cassian stared at the girl’s legs with curiosity. _So this is what human legs look like up close_.

He’d seen human legs before, but never like this. Most of the ones he’d witnessed as a merchild were green and bloated. It was downright frightening to look at, but he was assured by his father, way back when, that humans only looked like that underwater “because they tried to be like one of us, and failed rather miserably”.

Most of her appearance was foreign to her. She wore dressings that didn’t exist in his world, though he remembered his mom referring to this clothing as a “dress”.

What was interesting to him, though, was that she wore the thing called “shorts” underneath it. His mother didn’t tell him that such clothing could be layered.

In spite of her strange arrangement of clothing, she wiggled her toes in the cold water and let them dig into the muddy waters. She threw her head back, still gripping the skirt of her dress, and sighed contentedly. The warm sunlight shone over a necklace hung around her neck. It was a leather strap with a rather plain-looking crystal. The ocean spray made it glisten just a little, and Cassian wondered what was so special about such a plain piece of jewelry.

The girl opened her eyes and looked out at the vast sea, which Cassian was _not_ expecting, and he rushed to hide behind a nearby rock to avoid detection.

He hoped that he escaped her notice.

“Hello?” the girl called out, clearly staring in the direction that Cassian had once been.

Cassian waited for just a bit before deciding to check and see if she might’ve walked away. Slowly he peered out from above the rock.

Their eyes met, and Cassian froze under her intense stare.

 _Don’t blink,_ Cassian tried to tell himself. _Don’t move at all, and don’t blink._

He hoped that if he was still enough, she could chalk it up to her imagination and move on.

Just because he Surfaced didn’t mean he wanted to interact with humans right away. He wasn’t ready.

The girl squinted and stared at Cassian with even more scrutiny.

She took a step in the water.

And then another.

And another.

Soon she was taking one step after another, and was knee-deep in the water, clearly intent on approaching Cassian.

His heart practically stopped- he’d been caught for sure.

She started to wade into the water, until they both heard a shout from further away, where all the other humans were.

“Jyn, my Stardust, why are you all the way over there? Come here and enjoy the Sunday roast with the rest of us!” Her mother and father could be seen in the distance, waving at her.

The girl- Jyn- turned her head to yell back “Alright, fine, I’m coming!” and Cassian used the open window to take a big breath of air and dive back underwater.

The transition back to using gills for breathing was a lot easier this time around, having remembered to take a proper breath while the mucous built back up to block the human orifices on his body. When his gills finally flapped open, he sighed with relief at the close call, and he opened his eyes again to see Jyn’s feet walking out of the waters and back onto land.

As he swam back down to the depths of the Atlantic where his school was, his brothers had all waited back with whoops and cheers.

“Did you meet any humans?”

“Any hotties up there?”

“Did you get caught?”

“So how badly did you choke up there?”

“How was it?”

Cassian shrugged, trying hard not to look too overwhelmed by his first experience up above water. “It was…weird.”

They all paused.

“…Just ‘weird’?” they asked in near-unison.

“She wasn’t _amazing_ , but she was interesting.”

One of his middle brothers swam forward to eye him more closely. “So you _did_ get to see a human,” he concluded.

“Yeah, a girl. It looked like they were out on a picnic along the beach.”

“Ah, that must be Princess Erso,” the oldest brother chimed in.

Cassian arched an eyebrow. “ _Princess_? So just over the cliff was an actual castle?”

“Yeah, she’s the princess of the nearby human kingdom. Must’ve been down on another family picnic if you saw her on the beach.”

“Are all princesses that young?” Cassian asked later, in the privacy of his bedroom.

“It seems like that’s how humans work,” his sea turtle friend responded drily, swimming in lazy circles around him.

Cassian rolled his eyes and ignored the loggerhead. “How does one even rule an entire kingdom when you’re that young, Kay? Is she even my age?” his thoughts filtered out loud.

Kay twirled as he continued to slowly circle Cassian. “I’ve seen that Erso girl around. She certainly wasn’t around until well after you were born.”

Cassian hummed and he continued to let his mind wander. His memory would keep coming back to minor things about her- her toes, her necklace, her giggle, her eyes…

“Cassian? Are you still thinking about that Erso girl?”

He snapped out of it. “What? No.”

If Kay’s eyes weren’t already naturally lidded, he would’ve done so right then and there. But Cassian could feel the skepticism. “Alright then,” he said slowly, “Can we finally go hunting? I’m even hungrier now than I was when you came back from your Surfacing.”

“Oh. Right. Yeah, I’ll grab my spear.”

“Honestly, Cassian what has gotten into you? I want to get this done before I go back up to the surface for another breath.”

Cassian paused as he reached the doorway of his bedroom. He whirled around. “Wait, you have to go up to breathe.” It was more a remark than a question.

“Like I’ve been doing for the last 40 years, Cassian,” Kay replied in his flattest voice.

Cassian grinned. “Take me with you next time you have to resurface to breathe.”

* * *

Through the years, Cassian would continue to breach the ocean’s surface to observe the humans. Most of the time, he was alone. Sometimes Kay would accompany him to take a breath, and Cassian would hear him snap his jaws in a clacking “tsk” noise before diving back down to nap. Even with all the intense training under Draven and his Intelligence division, if he had even a drop of energy to see the surface, he would swim up to the surface to take in the sights and smells and sounds.

Through these years of breaching the ocean’s surface on his free time, he came to watch the princess- _Jyn_ \- grow up.

He saw her splash about in the water in the summers.

He watched her train with a dark-skinned woman. The woman ( _Steela_ , he heard Jyn call her) barked orders to do more exercise, to do them better, harder, more fiercely.

He saw her eyes spark with an impending intensity, and a part of him wondered if he’d ever get to see the flames come to life in them.

Although he’d see Jyn doing something different every time he surfaced, the necklace remained hung around her neck; the only constant in her ever-changing presence.

Once, he saw her try to save another human who’d been whipped around by the waves as the tide shifted. The human was a boy that looked to be perhaps just a bit younger than Cassian himself, and was lying on his back, unconscious. Jyn had bent over him and patted at the boy’s face. He could faintly hear her yell “Hang in there, Bodhi! Stay with me!”.

Cassian’s heart sank for Bodhi- he knew all too well the burning sensation that flares in one’s chest from a loss of air. Surely he suffered greatly before losing consciousness. Cassian took a risk and swam a little closer, curious as to how the whole thing would unfold.

He watched and waited.

A loud and resounding cough echoed off the cliffs, and Bodhi sat up.

Part of him felt like even he could breathe again as Bodhi gasped for air.

But he lost his breath again as he saw Jyn smile, grinning from ear-to-ear, her eyes twinkling, before pulling Bodhi in for a hug.

He couldn’t recall if Jyn’s eyes ever had that twinkle in them before, but it drew a blush to his face nonetheless.

* * *

It had been a while since he saw Jyn after that surfacing, but the next time he resurfaced, he did so because he noticed flashes of lights in the night sky bending into the water.

“It could just be nothing special- possibly fireworks- but confirm either way,” Draven instructed.

Cassian stared back at Draven with a neutral face, his spine as erect as possible, and nodded curtly.

He had grown a little more since then; where his face was once youthfully chubby at the cheeks and smooth to touch, a scruffy beard had sprouted in its place, and his cheeks hollowed out just slightly to accentuate his sharp jawline and strong cheekbones. His shoulders had widened a fair bit, to the point where only his family members call him “Shrimp”, but only because they all knew he still lacked the ability to gain muscle mass like his brothers.

As he reached the surface, the lights started to show their colors- blue, bright yellow, green, red, even purple. Each came with a loud booming sound.

Surely it couldn’t be cannon fire, could it? Humans certainly were skilled at fighting from afar, after all. But cannon fire after sundown seemed strange. Hopefully no one was in danger. Would he be in danger if he surfaced?

Cassian took a deep breath just before his nose breached; he’d find out shortly.

The booming noises sounded dull at first, but as the mucous wore away in the dry air, other noises accompanied it. There were whooshes and whistling noises that faded away to a pregnant silence, followed by a resounding pop and boom that reverberated and rattled Cassian’s chest. He opened his eyes slowly, hoping to be able to focus on something other than the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach coupled by the burning, prickling sensation in his throat and lungs.

He learned, over the years, to exhale slowly during the transition to ease the pain, but it only delayed the inevitable by a few seconds. _Don’t think I’ll ever get used to that_ , he thought as his nasal cavity finally unclogged itself and he took a huge breath of relief.

A purple light reflected in the water this time, and as Cassian looked up, the lights seemed to rain down in front of him. They disappeared before they could touch the horizon. It was beautifully hypnotizing.

He was aware that fireworks normally were lit for special occasions.

What could possibly be happening at night that was so special? The surface was rather quiet all day today; there was no prior indication of a celebration.

 _“That’s why the Intelligence division was formed,”_ he remembered Draven saying when he was inducted. _“To obtain information on the humans and make sure our population stays safe from attack.”_

At least Draven’s suspicions were right- fireworks were the kind of false alarm Atlantica could swim with.

He squinted and saw a ship up ahead, anchored to the dock along the cliff. The ship was well lit and, based on the noise level, a whole school of humans were on board.

Cassian considered ignoring the apparent party happening a few hundred meters in front of him and going straight to Draven to report before heading to his quarters to sleep, but…

_You’ve never seen a human celebration on a boat before._

He hesitated.

On one hand, he could get caught.

He could get caught and possibly captured by the humans, and who knows what they’d do to his body. Not a single merfolk who was last seen surfacing before going missing ever came back. And humans terrified most merfolk that most only surface once during their Surfacing and never attempt it again.

But on the other hand, he could obtain more intel that could be useful.

The Intelligence division still had a ways to go with their intel of humankind. Whatever he could contribute based on his observations would be a win for the fleet (not to mention make Draven proud).

_Plus, Jyn might be there._

He hadn’t seen the princess in a while. He wondered how she’d been since he last saw her, if the necklace was still there, if she still had that spark and twinkle in her eyes, if she still smiled like he remembered…

He swam towards the ship.

There was music coming from the deck of the ship, and people were stomping around rhythmically. The boat rocked back and forth, creating its own waves in the ocean calm. Cassian sighed longingly at the sound- if only he had legs join them and dance with them all.

“Happy Birthday, Jynnie!” some men had cried out. Glasses clinked. More stomping.

“Don’t be shy, Jyn, have yourself a pint!” another voice, deeper than the last one, exclaimed.

“No, I don’t think-“ he heard Jyn say, but then another woman cut in.

“You’re a sailor, Jyn, so you’ll drink like one!”

“Steela!” she heard Jyn hiss with embarrassment.

“Woman, there’s already red coming onto your face, you may as well already be a bit tipsy!” Steela shot back.

So Jyn _was_ onboard!

Carefully, slowly, quietly, he summoned all his upper body strength to climb up to the lowest part of the deck. Hidden by the shadows of the nearby barrels, he let himself get up to chest level to get a good look at the festivities.

A crowd had circled around Jyn and Steela, with the men and women chanting, “Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!”. Through the cracks formed by their rather fit legs, he could see the birthday girl lean back and drink down the entire contents of the heavy glass mug in one go. Steela’s dark skin glistened with sweat from all the dancing as she grinned down at the princess. When Jyn finished it up to the last drop, the crowd cheered and applauded heartily, and she finally stood back upright, wiping the dribble of beer from her lips.

She opened her eyes and grinned from ear-to-ear, just like he remembered seeing from her years ago.

The princess, now 18, stood upright and proud, taller than the last time he saw her, and carried herself with confidence and energy. Her legs were larger, stronger-looking compared to before. But despite the physical changes in her body since he last saw her, her smile was still just as bright as before, and the twinkle in her eyes never left.

She positively glowed, and Cassian felt his heart skip a beat as he took in the sight of her.

In that moment, his curiosity in her morphed into an infatuation, and he felt himself fluoresce as his tail twitched.

Shocked by his own reaction, he lost his grip and fell backwards into the sea with a loud splash.

Not good.

Quickly, he resurfaced and swam to the stern, away from where he once was, panting heavily with fright. He peered around the bend of the boat, hoping that no one went to investigate the noise.

“Did you hear that?” he heard Jyn say.

 _Crap_.

“Was that a splashing sound? Is someone else here?” she said aloud, and he could hear the heavy boot steps get closer to the edge of the ship.

 _Nothing ever gets past you, does it?_ he thought to himself as he lowered back into the water so that his nose was just above the surface. He pressed his body against the hull, bobbing along with the ship as he hid.

He hoped that her attention wouldn’t shift in his direction.

But nothing really _did_ get past her, did it?

She looked in his direction, almost as if she knew he was there.

She stared, squinted, scrutinized in the dark, along the hull where Cassian hid in the shadows.

_Don’t move. Don’t blink._

It was his Surfacing all over again, except now his tail wouldn’t stop fluorescing. He hoped that none of the marine life down below would come up to the surface and draw more attention to his location.

 _Breathe, Cassian, breathe. Calm down,_ he told himself, taking slow, deep, _quiet_ breaths. He hoped that his sudden burst of attraction to Jyn would calm down enough for him to stop practically glowing underwater, but with his heart still racing, it was a bit of a tall order for him to level himself.

He contemplated slowly sinking in the water and trying to move away without getting caught, but as luck would have it, Steela’s voice rang out from the other side of the ship: “Jyn! More birthday drinks! You’ll drink like the rest of us!” she called out.

That snapped Jyn out of attention and she yelled back, “Make ‘em good, Steela!” before prancing back to join the rest of her birthday party guests.

Cassian breathed a sigh of relief as the loud festivities, foot stomping, and music playing resumed.

Taking a big gulp of air, he dunked back underwater and slowly swam back while he transitioned.

Jyn turned 18 tonight. It was good info to report to Draven.

Turning 18 meant being an adult for the humans as well. And usually that would mean…

_She’d be ready for marriage with another suitor._

Logistically, this would be valuable to report to Intelligence; it would mean being prepared for humans of a different school- no, _family_ was what they were all referred to- and any possible underwater activity that could threaten to harm the kingdom he lived in.

Professionally, it would look good on him to report information of this nature. It’s another good mark on his career, an additional motivation to receive commendations for his service.

Personally, however, if he was _really_ honest with himself…he’d be lying if he said the realization didn’t sadden him a bit.

Cassian didn’t travel very long to get back to the edge of Atlantica’s main city boundaries.

Draven was there. Waiting for him. Arms crossed.

As he swam up to Draven and stretched himself upright with a salute, he had a feeling something bad had happened.

“Captain,” Draven said curtly.

“General,” he responded in kind.

“You fluoresced.”

Cassian’s heart stopped.

“Come with me,” Draven continued, not waiting for a response from Cassian. “There’s something I need to show you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is designed to be a one-shot, but I wrote so much in the first half that I decided to split it in two chapters. The one-shot will actually end early on in the Disney film's timeline, and I don't particularly plan to continue it after that point. If other people are inclined to pick up from this foundation, you are more than welcome to do so, and I would be more than happy to share my headcanons with this universe to help you take direction with the continuation.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know how i said it was gonna be only two chapters?
> 
> I lied. I have no chill. The chapter got too long, so I split it in half. ~~sorry~~

Cassian wasn’t sure where they were headed, but it was certainly somewhere dark and deep, near an even steeper section of the ocean floor.

The journey was silent.

It wasn’t often that Cassian had to come down this far, but none of his assignments in this sector of Atlantica were ever pleasant, so he felt a dread creeping up his spine. The waters became colder and more suffocating from the pressure, and it pressed on his temples uncomfortably the further down they went.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of aimless traveling, Draven finally held a hand up for Cassian to stop swimming.

“Do you see this?” asked Draven, gesturing to the waters beyond.

It was still pretty dark and Cassian could barely see. He squinted in the darkness, hoping to see a glimmer of…whatever it may be that Draven wanted to point out.

No such luck.

“I’m sorry, sir, I’m afraid I don’t,” Cassian responded hesitantly.

“Look at the floors,” he ordered grimly.

There were several logs wrapped in cloth, coiled by rope and anchored down to the ocean floor by heavy rocks, cannonballs, or any number of heavy, human-made items. Smaller schools of fish swam through and around the log-like bundles of tied cloth, with some pecking at it as if to nibble on the surface of the cloth.

“The logs, you mean?” he asked.

Draven sighed, but not out of exasperation. No, this was a weighted sigh, the kind of sigh that came about when a message had to be delivered against one’s will. “Andor, listen carefully. This information is normally privy to a few merfolk, lest it spur an unnecessary war.”

The gentle, cool current sweeping through Cassian felt more like a warning as he waited for Draven’s next words.

“We call this The Graveyard. All these cloth bundles-“ he gestured to the expanse of ocean floor that had these cloth-covered logs dotted everywhere, as far as his eyes could see in the darkness, “-are merfolk that have been captured by humans before being murdered and tossed back into the sea, down to the depths, until they land here, where they can never resurface to show other humans about our existence.”

All of these.

All these…logs.

All murdered merfolk.

Cassian’s heart dropped.

“We’ve had the unfortunate task of uncovering some of the corpses to figure out what exactly was done to these folk.”

“And?” Cassian asked. He afraid of the answer, but the words tumbled out before he could stop himself.

“Their bodies have been spliced open at the fins, organs missing, random bones extracted, all different manners of torture. As if the humans wanted to inspect them closely. We’ve surmised that when the humans are done mutilating our own kind, they’re tossed unceremoniously into the sea and wind up here. That’s not even including the humans they do this to.”

Cassian had to hold back vomit.

He had to ask. “There are humans here, too? Among the merfolk in The Graveyard?”

“They’re harder to track. Those eels- Bor and Gullet- they’re always so quick to snatch them from the surface and drag them down to their personal collection of human remains.”

Cassian had only seen Bor and Gullet a couple of times, constantly dragging humans down from the surface and into their dark cavern. There were legends surrounding them, but none were ever confirmed.

Still, if there was any time to ask about new things, this was it. “Is it true that they only target people with secrets, sir?” he asked.

“Indeed, Andor; Bor and Gullet only target people who have a secret they’ll take with them to the grave. They can sniff that out in people. The last human to sink down to these depths untouched by the eels was a human child. Barely 5 years old based on our Intel about human growth. She washed away with the tide, and eventually became fish food.”

“I’m not sure I see your point in all this, sir,” Cassian responded once more with hesitation.

“You fluoresced.”

Cassian’s eyes darkened, though imperceptibly in the dark ocean floor. “You had me followed.”

Draven shook his head. “You were taking too long for what was supposed to be a quick survey. Kay volunteered to check up on you when he saw you fluoresce. Schools of fish fled your general direction in response, and Kay was worried you might have been in danger. Upon my arrival in the vicinity, you were merely expressing infatuation rather than danger.”

“I still fail to understand the importance of showing me The Graveyard just because I fluoresced, sir.” Cassian’s voice was slow, measured, growing concerned that Draven was trying to criticize him for something.

“There hasn’t been a single adult human that wasn’t taken away by Bor and Gullet, Captain. They all were taken away because they had something to hide. Even if they don’t murder us outright, they cannot be trusted.” Draven turned to look at Cassian square in the eye. “It’s risky- deadly, even- to fall in love with one.” He placed a hand on Cassian’s shoulder and his eyes softened a little in his stern gaze. “Even if your father were to forgive me, I don’t think I could forgive myself if you got caught up in human politics and wound up in The Graveyard.”

Cassian felt the heat rise to his face. “Jyn would never-“

“The princess?” Draven cut him off harshly. “Really, Andor, of all people, you think the princess would never do anyone harm?” 

The conviction in Draven’s voice took Cassian aback. He almost never spoke to anyone like this. The loss of calm unnerved him.

“You may be one of the best and brightest in Intelligence, but you know so very little about the princess. She is a sea anemone- she may be beautiful in her own way, colorful, charming, enticing…but she will attack and consume you with abandon if you get too close. It goes without saying that you should stay away from humans, but the princess in particular is especially dangerous.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Cassian responded stiffly through gritted teeth, “I would rather confirm this for myself.”

Draven’s jaw tightened in response. They practically stared each other down, the tension and silence growing thick with the ocean’s pressure.

“If that’s all, sir,” Cassian said again, as cool-headed as possible, “I’d like to return home.”

“Very well, Captain,” Draven responded with equal terseness. “Dismissed.”

* * *

“I can’t believe you sold me out like that,” Cassian mumbled as he entered his quarters.

Kay’s head lazily lifted his head. “Hmm? Oh, you’re home. Thank goodness.”

“Kay, I’m serious, why did you think I was in danger?”

“You fluoresced above the surface at night next to a human’s ship. That’s normally a sign of danger.”

“You could’ve just investigated it yourself and known that I wasn’t in any trouble.”

“How kind of you, Cassian, to not consider that even my own kind are constantly hunted and mutilated by the humans if they get close enough,” Kay quipped in a droll, sleepy voice.

It actually stung Cassian more to be called out like that when Kay was only half-awake.

“I’m sorry, Kay, I didn’t-“

“No, it’s quite alright; perhaps next time I should care a little less for your safety and just go about my own business.”

Cassian’s shoulders slumped and he sat next to Kay. “You don’t mean that, do you?”

“I mean it as much as you mean your ignorance about my concern for you,” he said with a yawn.

He felt terrible. Kay was his best friend and didn’t deserve his hissy fit just because he was embarrassed over not controlling his emotions better.

“So what happened that made you fluoresce in the first place?” Kay asked after a time.

“I saw the princess.”

“You see her all the time.”

“Not like this.”

“I wasn’t aware humans could change so quickly.”

Cassian was silent for a while, thinking of a way to better articulate his thoughts. Kay was an old, snarky soul- he had all the patience in the world in their amicable silence.

“I think it may be more that  _ I’ve _ changed.”

Kay hummed with curiosity, encouraging Cassian to continue with his elaboration.

“I’ve seen her so many times before over the years, but tonight, she…she looked  _ beautiful _ . There were so many other humans around her that were new. I could’ve observed them instead, but…” Cassian’s voice trailed off, pondering his next few words.

“For the first time, I saw her and I felt a pull. I had the urge to want to get to know her more. Not humans in general. Just  _ her _ .”

“Were you in so deep that you felt the need to watch her party the entire night?” Kay asked.

Cassian paused to consider Draven’s warning. Should he tell Kay?

“Kay…do you think humans are dangerous?” he asked, choosing to dodge the question entirely.

Kay lifted his head with a slow, quiet hum as he considered the question.

Then, “Not always. Most of the time, they aren’t. They  _ can _ be. Sometimes they don’t mean to be. But good intentions don’t reverse the damage they do to me and those around me, if you consider the bigger picture.”

Cassian’s eyes trailed down to Kay’s hind flipper. “So your scar-”

“Sort of explains it. I was stuck in a net, before you were born, dragged along the Atlantic by fishermen who wanted my shell. Another human saw this and chased the fishermen away. But I was still stuck in the net and weak from hunger. The human cut the net off me, but he sliced my flipper in the process. He freed me, but left me ashore to bleed it out.”

“Would you say, then, that I shouldn’t be around Jyn?”

No response.

“Kay?” Cassian asked hesitantly, worried about his lack of response.

Kay continued to be quiet for just a bit longer before saying, “You might change your mind about her when you see what she’s capable of doing to other humans,” he concluded, and swam away to sleep in a warmer corner of Cassian’s quarters.

Draven and Kay were normally at odds with each other, and it was incredibly uncommon for them to have a united front like this. After watching the princess in a series of vignettes throughout all these years, what could he have possibly overlooked in her that these two noticed right away?

Surely, the princess couldn’t be that dangerous.

Could she?

* * *

The low hum of the shell sirens vibrated throughout the kingdom and woke the kingdom in the late hours of the night. Suddenly Atlantica thrummed with merfolk rushing to respond to the sirens. The lights in the kingdom were barely flickering on in response to the alert when members of the naval fleet swam out, gear in tow, rushing to report to their designated emergency formations.

Cassian had his own place to report to in the middle of the panic. The elderly and children were clamoring to wish their loved soldiers luck; some prayed to their shell pendants for a safe return. No one knew what the emergency was just yet, but it was likely that humans were engaging once again in dangerous activity. It normally was.

“Make sure you find a safe place, Kay,” Cassian said to his easygoing friend.

Kay bumped his shell against Cassian’s fin stubbornly. “I have to make sure you make it out of this alive first,” he replied simply.

There wasn’t much more Kay could do to express his love and care, and Cassian smiled before swimming away towards Draven’s designated station, knapsack in tow.

As he approached the older merman, he saw him give orders to a squad of 10 merfolk, who then dispersed in different directions as he nodded them away. Draven’s eyes met Cassian’s and they gave each other a nod of acknowledgement.

“The situation, sir?” Cassian asked after a stiff salute.

“At ease, Andor,” Draven said, and Cassian relaxed a little. “There’s a battle happening not far off the shore of the human kingdom; there’s a lot of cannon fire so we need to monitor the situation and make sure their artillery doesn’t make its way to the kingdom’s boundaries.”

Cassian nodded. This happened from time to time, normally far away from the kingdom’s central hub, in the unincorporated sections of the Atlantic sea, but they were about due for a closer battle, it seemed.

“Normally I wouldn’t ask you to report to me so soon, but I want you to survey the battle above as it’s happening right now.”

He tilted his head just slightly and his eyebrows furrowed with curiosity and concern.

“The princess is aboard one of the ships. Fighting.”

Cassian could feel his blood turn cold as he thought back to the night at The Graveyard some time ago.

“I want you to surface and watch them-  _ really watch them _ \- and realize just how dangerous Princess Erso is.”

He nodded grimly.

“I don’t need to tell you to stay safe and be alert and aware of your surroundings,” Draven said, but his face softened just slightly as he said, “but I’d like to remind you of that. For your own good.” Cassian could see his fingers twitch, itching to reach out to him, but Draven straightened his posture suddenly and brought his hands behind his back. “Kay may accompany you, if you wish. I am made to understand that he, too, realizes the danger with the princess. Perhaps he can be of assistance if something goes awry. Don’t spend too long above surface; you have other tasks to tend to before the battle gets too messy.”

Cassian looked down at Kay as he nodded slowly.

“Dismissed,” Draven said, and Cassian and Kay headed off towards the battleground.

The boom of the cannons were becoming more and more pronounced as they reached closer to the underside of the ships. He noticed the underbelly shape of two of them, like whales, facing each other as flashes of light rang out on either side. Wooden debris and missed cannonballs were sinking at various rates down to the ocean floor, and in the depths he could see one of the fleets scurrying like herrings to catch and divert the garbage the humans were inadvertently tossing overboard amidst all their fighting.

“I’m running out of oxygen,” Kay mentioned nonchalantly, snapping Cassian out of his trance. It wasn’t often that he could see the Alliance Fleet work in an active battle zone, and it put him in a mesmerized trance.

“Right, sorry,” Cassian said, and they swam upwards. Cassian took a deep breath and shut his eyes as he jutted up to the surface and the transition began.

Cassian learned that although cannon fire was considered a type of explosion, it was absolutely  _ nothing _ like fireworks.

The ringing in his ears was so numbing and disabling that he almost wanted to dive right back in the water to get the mucous to cover his ears.

Still, he forced himself to wait it out, and he finally opened his eyes.

His first breath above water came out as a shocked gasp.

The ships had come even closer in contact now, with the humans on either ship crossing over into each other’s territory.

He saw a man scream as he was tossed overboard with a loud grunt, and that’s when he saw Jyn.

Her necklace shone and sparkled, illuminated by the cannon fire, as she punched and clawed and kicked and whacked people with just about any prop she could find. She was vicious, fighting back to back with Steela, who exemplified strength in her own right, and the two did not hesitate to be as savage as possible.

He’d seen dolphins bat around pufferfish just for the joy of watching them scared senseless, afraid that they might pop, but to see this in human form was astounding to him.

Her techniques were brutal. Jyn had taken a knife from a strap on her thigh and swiped at a burly man who lunged at her, clean across the jugular, causing him to fall back. One smack on the head with the blunt of the knife, and she kicked him off the boat and into the sea. As Steela herself rammed another human against the beam of the ship and shot another oncoming enemy, Cassian surmised that Jyn and Steela were responsible for most of the blood spilling into the ocean around them.

He’d never seen anyone move with such conviction and a thirst to win.

It was all so violent, and yet her movements, her ferocity, her strength…it was all so  _ beautiful _ .

_ She is a sea anemone _ , he remembered Draven warning him, but as he saw her- a small flame stoked into an inferno as she shot yet another sailor to defend Steela- and much like a fish staring at an anemone, he felt drawn to her intense beauty and swam even closer.

More gunfire rang from the enemy ship, and Jyn ducked for cover, pulling a man- Bodhi had grown to be pretty tall- down with her. Her head peeked back out from behind the barrels and shot a woman attempting to cross from the enemy boat onto hers, and Bodhi’s ponytail whipped around to open fire at someone trying to climb up the side of the ship. He could hear Steela yell out orders to the others scrambling to load up the cannons with more ammunition, and the wood clattered as the carts were being tugged and pulled to the proper spot.

The ship across them was already beating them to it, loading their own cannons and lighting the fuse, aimed in the spot where Jyn was.

Cassian’s eyes widened. “Kay,” he started, pawing around for his shell.

Kay tried to push him away from the ship. “Cassian, we need to-“

“CANNON!” Bodhi screamed, trying to pull Jyn out of the way, but he tripped on a coil of rope and fell face-first on top of Jyn as the enemy cannon fired.

It tore through the ship.

Water started flooding in to the hole it made.

Another fired out in quick succession.

It ripped through the mast and started to topple over.

The remaining ammo in Jyn’s ship exploded all at once, and the ship broke in jagged halves before sinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [come say hi on tumblr!](sleepykalena.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 3 am and i'm tired and totally posting this un-revised. I'll come back and revise this later when I'm an actual functioning human, so I apologize for any grammar/spelling/pronoun mistakes!

Their cries rang in the dead of the night as the flames soared high, with most of the sailors abandoning ship. Some were able to resurface and swim to shore.

Cassian’s eyes scanned the surface and the shore, but couldn’t find Jyn. Then-

“BODHI!” she screamed, her cries piercing his ears as she dove into the waters.

He looked to Kay, who was still trying to push Cassian further back away from the wreckage. “Kay, the princess-“

“We can’t interfere with them, Cassian,” Kay pleaded, still pushing.

“They’ll die otherwise!” he said, finally pushing Kay away by the shell before taking the biggest gulp of air possible before swimming straight for Bodhi and Jyn.

Transitioning was never easy, but he’d gotten used to it. He even thought of himself as being particularly skilled at it.

Transitioning from nose to gills while swimming was a whole new game, however, and Cassian was starting to realize he wasn’t very good at this at all.

As the fires above lit the ocean water, he saw Jyn swimming for Bodhi, who was tangled in ropes and being dragged down to the ocean floor. Cassian swam faster, hoping that he still had enough oxygen in his system to hold out for his gills; his heart and nerves were pricking and burning from the sped-up heartbeat and the rapid loss of air. He nearly approached Jyn to help her untangle Bodhi but backed away almost immediately when he saw her whip out a knife and start hacking away at the rope.

Nearby, he could see a pair of eels approaching the surrounding humans, swiftly slithering back up closer to the surface to drag each of them down one by one. Jyn, meanwhile, had finally cut through enough rope to untangle Bodhi and free him. With as much strength as she could muster, she pushed him up above her head and began to swim to the surface.

Until the tangle of ropes snagged her feet and started to drag her down instead as Bodhi floated to the surface.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Bor and Gullet stop to assess the situation unfolding. Surely, there could be other humans to seize first before her. Plenty, in fact.

One of them darts for Jyn.

Cassian looked at Kay desperately, his breath finally returning as his gills opened. Kay returned the glance, although questioningly.

Cassian had a choice to make: risk his life to attempt to save Jyn, or swim away and let her be dragged to the depths of Bor and Gullet’s cavern.

Help her or preserve his safety.

Humans or merfolk.

Her life or his own.

He pulled his stomato-blaster out of his knapsack and swam as quickly as he could to close the gap. Off in the distance, he could hear Kay groan; he knew his best friend wasn’t going to desert him so easily, not especially since Draven gave orders to keep an eye on him. He almost regretted keeping a veritable distance away from Jyn when she was trying to free Bodhi- he swam faster to try and close in on the eels so his stomato-blaster could get in range.

Jyn struggled to free herself from the tangle of ropes, kicking her legs to shake it off. The ropes remained tangled at the ankles, and Bor (or was it Gullet? It was always hard to tell between the two) grabbed on to the ropes to pull her down further. Jyn was faster, however, and managed to kicked the rope off and hurried to swim upwards before the eel could yank it down.

But then Gullet (possibly Bor) caught up and wrapped around her ankle, and no amount of kicking would shake him off of her. Jyn took out her knife to swipe at the eel to scare him off, but Bor (Cassian was pretty sure it wasn’t Gullet) squeezed her wrist to prevent her from striking, and the knife slipped from her hands.

Cassian took aim and fired at Gullet until he let go of her ankle, while Kay clamped his beaker around Bor to free Jyn. Gullet, hissing at the pain, darted for Cassian to strike back, deftly dodging the stomato-blaster shots and unhinging his jaw to bite at Cassian’s tail. Kay slammed into Gullet with his shell, and the eel was winded.

Not wanting to easily defeated, Bor continued to try dragging Jyn down towards their cavern. Cassian attempted a few shots to graze Bor, but he was far too close to Jyn’s head, his slithering length wrapping around her neck. She’d gripped the eel, squeezing as hard as she could to get him to let go, but to no avail. It wasn’t worth the risk, he determined, and decided instead to pull out his blade. He wasn’t sure why the eels wanted this particular human, but he wasn’t going to let them take her without a fight. If he struck at a core point, Bor would loosen his grip on Jyn and he could bring her back up safely. If Bor decided to tighten his grip, however…

He took the risk: he struck Bor’s eye, stabbing it repeatedly.

Bor screeched and loosened his grip on Jyn, and with a final tug, he pulled her away from the eel and rushed to swim back up to the surface just as she started to lose consciousness. Kay rejoined Cassian, having finally knocked out Gullet, and he helped push Jyn to the surface. The sight of the fires was dying down, but it was so close,  _ so close _ -

Cassian took a gulp of sea-air and braced for the icy chill of the surface air.

 

Humans are remarkably heavy when not supported by the density of the sea- Cassian had always known this, but tonight he learned that theory is vastly different from experience. The pebbles in the shoreline dug into his tail enough to leave bruises later, and as he tried to help drag a weakened and barely-conscious Jyn up the shore, safely away from the whispers of the ocean waves, he realized just how heavy they both were. But he had to keep pulling, he just  _ had to _ , just to make sure the princess was safe.

The sounds of battle had died off as the last of the capsized ship’s fire sizzled out in the dead of the night. Kay stayed behind, preferring to keep watch over any approaching humans for Cassian’s safety.

Cassian looked down at Jyn, who looked incredibly weakened from the experience. She coughed violently and was quaking with shivers once her eyes flew open. As her focus and strength returned, however, she looked up at him, and her eyes widened with panic. She pushed him back and patted around her leg to pull out yet another blade from her holster. Without averting her gaze, she retreated back as hastily as possible and eased into a striking position, blade brandished.

He backed away in surprise just as she did, retreating far enough so that his tail touched the water, the fluorescence glowing in the shallow waves that ebbed and flowed over him. Cassian would feel her eyes searching his, trying to look for answers, her inner fire ablaze. The fluorescence glowed brighter as he continued to back away, trying to hide his tail in the water and away from her view.

“Who are you?” she demanded to know.

He’d been so busy admiring Jyn’s fire from afar that he didn’t realize how much it could burn him to be on the receiving end of it.

Princess Jyn Erso, the sea anemone, who could (and would soon) ensnare and consume him whole.

Cassian was taken aback, frozen in shock. He had no idea how to answer. What was the question pertaining to? His name? His species? His rank and status? What exactly does she know about merfolk, if anything at all? Was he going to meet his end at last for getting too close to her, just like Kay and Draven warned?

As he heard Kay rhythmically splash as a warning signal and the distant shouts of humans from around the bend of the shore could be heard, Cassian’s gaze averted for just a split second.

A mistake.

He heard the shuffle of the pebbles on the shore crunch. His gaze darted back and he saw that Jyn was cautiously approaching him, blade still in hand.

Cassian backed away even further as quickly as he could, his own blade up in self-defense. The rocks dug in deeper and deeper into his bottom half and his free hand, threatening to pierce him from the weight of his now-slimy body. He managed to back up far enough that his fin was completely submerged, and with a single kick of his lower body, he bounced up and backwards into the ocean waves, disappearing from her completely.

The last thing he saw before the water clouded his vision completely was Jyn looking confused as her defensive stance eased into a more relaxed contrapposto.

 

“Have you figured out yet if she’s dangerous or not?” Kay asked as they swam further down from the surface.

Cassian still looked pensive despite the slight shock. “...I’m not sure what to think of her anymore. She applies that ferocity to everyone, doesn’t she?”

Kay only nodded.

“It’s just...there has to be something more to her. Our own kingdom has a merit to whoever holds the throne; surely humans act the same way?”

“It’s possible, but not likely, given their willingness to act violently just to demonstrate superiority.”

He sighed. “There are more to humans than that, and you know it.”

“Of course, silly me; I forgot it was customary for humans to slash throats in an affectionate greeting,” Kay said with an eye roll, which warranted a gentle tail kick from Cassian, just under his carapice. “Mistakes in judgements happen even to the best of us- don’t take it so seriously, Cassian.”

Cassian just wasn’t so sure. Jyn was just scared, she  _ had to  _ have just been scared. Her ship blew up in the middle of a battle, she nearly got taken away by eels, and a total stranger just appeared above her when she regained consciousness.

But then there was the look in her eyes, the sheer panic for just a split second before it created a spark that ignited a rage of flames in her gaze. Cassian never truly felt frightened for his safety, and was lauded by Draven and other superior officers in the Alliance Fleet for being calm under pressure. If they saw him up on the shore, the shiver down his spine and the fear displayed clearly on his face (in the presence of a human, no less), what would they think of him them? Worse yet, what would they think of him if, despite this,despite the fact that he interfered with human affairs when he was explicitly given orders to only observe the sea battle, despite the fear the nearly froze him and got him killed, he  _ still _ felt drawn to the princess?

He was so deep in his own thoughts that he managed to narrowly weave through the ship wreckage that had sunk to the ocean floor, but paused when he felt something hit him on the forehead. He recoiled slightly as Kay continued to swim, not noticing that Cassian had stopped, then looked up.

It was a necklace.

He almost ducked a little and swam past it; it was a pretty plain and unassuming necklace, after all.

But.

_ Wait, that’s not any necklace- _

Jyn’s necklace, a leather cord tied around a crystal shaped like a human gun bullet, dangled above his head, swaying with the gentle ocean current. The cord had landed on the split plank he almost ducked under, the jagged wood splints catching the cord.

He reached out and grabbed it, remembering how it hung around Jyn’s neck and how it glistened in the daylight. It seemed like such a boring piece of jewelry up-close; surely a princess of a kingdom was gifted with fancier regalia? He certainly recalled seeing her wear such fancy things over the years, but this was the only item consistently on her person. If she kept it and wore it all those years despite its nondescript appearance, even going so far as wearing it in the heat of battle, then it  _ must _ have sentimental value to her.

_ I have to return it to her _ .

But how? Cassian was relatively certain that-

“Your chances of being attacked again by the princess upon approaching her is still pretty high considering you’re a stranger to her,” Kay said, interrupting his thoughts. “And you still want to return that necklace to her?”

He put the necklace on, not wanting to lose it, and swam on. “It meant something to her- I should at least give it back. She was lucky to even survive that blast given that they managed to take back the fight at the last moment.”

“ _ You _ were lucky to even survive being on land. The princess has already proven to you just how dangerous and deadly she can be. She’s like a sea anemone, Cassian- you will get eaten if you get too close.”

Cassian paused. “Have you been talking to Draven?”

Kay scoffed. “What, the analogy?” He rolled his eyes. “I’m the one that gave it to him.”

“So you don’t approve of me being around Jyn.”

“Of course not- I just wanted you to arrive to that conclusion on your own.”

“Would you hate me if I said I’m going back to the surface to return the necklace?”

“That’s a bit strong. And inaccurate. I would excessively and unabashedly judge you.”

Cassian smirked in amusement as they kept swimming.

“Although,” Kay admitted a bit more quietly, breaking the silence, “I do worry for your safety, Cassian. Please keep your distance from her. I don’t want you to end up in The Graveyard.”

So he  _ did _ know about it.

“Your silence tells me you’re surprised at how much I know.” Kay twirled around Cassian- a playful taunt- whilst saying, “No one ever suspects a turtle if they’re quiet enough!”

Cassian gave Kay a playful shove. Kay wasn’t wrong.

He just wished Kay was wrong about Jyn.

 

Cassian decided to wait until what humans called “high noon” to resurface and look for Jyn. Perhaps if he approached her under the brightest conditions, she would see that he was friendly, and be less likely to attack him. He could return the necklace safely, and then go back to observing her from afar. Even if he wanted to get to know her, there was still a nagging in the back of his mind and a sinking feeling in his gut that warned him to ultimately stay away. She was a human, and he was a merman. As much as he wanted to deny the possible dangers, she’d proven herself to be more foe than friend, and the risk was too high.

He peeked out slowly to the surface, keeping his gills underwater in case of a quick getaway.

The princess was sitting on a lone rock not far from the shoreline, her eyes scrutinizing the horizon. Even from this distance he knew she was searching for...something. She lifted a pair of binoculars and started scanning the horizon again, her eyebrows knotted up even more tightly under the blinding sunlight up above. As Jyn’s body turned and searched in his direction, her body came to a complete stop and she stiffened.

He froze as well, barely managing to stop himself from fluorescing. He could practically see her hairs standing on end at having caught him.

She set down the binoculars slowly and started rising to her feet, slow and calculating like an octopus.  Judging by her bare feet and her more practical naval attire, it was clear that she was ready to jump into the water to hunt him down. She was so small from where he surfaced, but the holster at her side was clearly visible, as was the knife peeking out from behind her pistol, the visible portion of the blade glinted under the sunlight.

Cassian gulped, remembering the night before. The only thing sharper than her gaze was the knives she wielded against her opponents. The thought made his heart stop cold. Should he approach her after all?

His heart seemed to recover from the shock with a jump start as he forced himself to take a deep breath. It thumped and thumped, as though it were inching its way up his chest and out of his throat. His fight or flight responses were pushing him closer and closer to fluorescing, but he willed himself to stay on the spot as he held out her necklace. He held it forward before placing it on his other hand, palm upwards as if to present a gift to her (even if it was  _ hers _ to begin with). The crystal glistened brightly, and Cassian hoped she would understand that he was trying to return it. He bobbed gently with the sea, and counterbalanced his hand to prevent the motion from knocking the necklace off his hand.

There was a thick moment of tension between them, and the only thing he could hear was the pulse pounding in his head and the whispering shushes of the waves moving to shore.

Then, without warning, she dove.

Cassian quickly dipped his head back under the surface and found that she was actually  _ swimming towards him _ with an agility and swiftness he hadn’t seen from her before.  _ Steela has really trained her well _ , he noted, and his fascination for her skills was matched only by the panic he felt when he realized that she was quickly closing the gap between them.

He considered retreating for the sake of his own safety when she suddenly stopped swimming and resurfaced with a gasp. She paused and kept herself afloat a few strokes away, he noticed, and wondered why she didn’t come any closer until he realized she looked at him, eyebrows unfurrowed, with her head tilted in curiosity. Slowly, her fingers peeked out from the surface, then her hand, and her forearms.

She was trying to tell him she wasn’t going to harm him.

Cassian wasn’t sure how to react. The paranoia kicked in and he stared at Jyn, calculating the many ways he could die if he approached her. She could quickly reach down and drag her blade across his chest and leave him to bleed out or- worse yet- slice his gills and drown him. There were many things she could do with that knife, come to think, and being within striking range would put him at risk of injury, if not death, and all because he wanted to return a single trinket.

But then it also dawned on him that it would have been incredibly easy to shoot him point blank, especially from their distance, and yet she hadn’t. The tilt of her head was, in fact, genuine, not calculating. She was curious about him and wanted to come closer to observe.

So, despite that a strong part of him was screaming internally and telling him to flee while he still had the chance, Cassian put the necklace back on and swam closer to meet her in the middle.

Cassian had always wondered what humans looked like up close; if they also had a film covering their skin, or wrinkles as they aged, or even if their hair was as soft as theirs. As he stopped within an arm’s reach of her, He found that there wasn’t a slime all over their skin, but rather some type of oil that caused the water to form beads and slide off her face. It also turned out that humans had more color to them as well. Her skin was more flush; the veins were much closer to the skin’s surface. And her eyes-

Oh, her  _ eyes _ .

From afar, her gaze was sharp and her eyes a threat, but up close, it was a much softer shape with rounded edges, and her eye color reminded him of the kelp fields he used to play in when he was younger. The sea anemone metaphor could not have been more apt than at this moment as he felt himself slowly getting lost in her eyes in the same way he would get lost in the kelp fields during his youth. She could ensnare him by now, and he wouldn’t be able to register it until it was too late.

Snapping out of his reverie, he removed the necklace and lifted his arms to lower it around her neck, keeping his gills underwater all the while. As he lifted, Jyn bowed her head slightly to easier access, and the crystal sparkled on her chest once again.

With his personal mission now complete, he started to back away when she clutched his hand.

“You’re the one that saved me the other night, aren’t you?” she asked.

Cassian’s eyes widened. He studied human languages, particularly the one called “English,” but he never bothered to practice  _ speaking _ it. How could he even get a chance to practice if humans never interacted with his own kind? Did he even know for sure what she was trying to tell him?

He didn’t.

He wasn’t sure how to tell her he couldn’t understand what she was saying, and doubted that he could even form a full sentence, so the only thing that tumbled out of his lips was, “Um?”

Surely that would be enough for her to understand that he was unsure of how to speak to her- English-speaking humans did that during times of uncertainty, after all; that much he knew. His voice was a low croak, and it was abundantly clear that he had absolutely no human speaking skills whatsoever. He must have sounded completely foreign to her despite proper use of the expression.

Her head tilted in the other direction. “No English?”

He shook his head.

“What are you, then?” she asked slowly. The poor princess had assumed he was from another country, but little did she know...

_ Not human, _ he thought.

Cassian backed up, just a bit, and took a deep breath. Refusing to tear his eyes from hers (and going against his better judgement, according to his inner, screaming half), he rose high enough to reveal his neck, and the transition began.

He watched her eyes widen at the realization that, yes, he was, in fact,  _ not _ human. But the heat of the sun was beating down on him, causing the prickling sensation in his chest to be more noticeable to the point where he visibly winced. His gills opened and closed, gasping desperately for even a trickle of water but not finding it, and the mucous film started wearing away, slow and steady, but not soon enough.

Jyn looked at him with worry in her eyes, and reached out to him when he started to bow his head to endure the pain in his chest. Her fingertips slowly traced his gills, and, in a panic, Cassian recoiled and swatted her hand away.

Rather than use this opportunity to attack or to push, however, Jyn surprised him by grasping the hand that swatted her, squeezing gently at first before placing the hand on her chest. He could feel the rise and fall of her breathing, calmer and cooler than the ocean itself, and Cassian felt a sense of warmth and safety blanketing over him. He let the faint traces of her beating heart under his fingertips soothe him, and he opened his eyes once the pain had subsided. He noticed her staring at a drop of water quivering from his nose tip as he continued to breath in and out through a human orifice, and he watched her eyes trail downwards to his gills, which were now closed and covered in mucous.

He could see the thoughts swirling tumultuously in her mind like a swirling sea current as she looked back up at him, and it caused his own mind to churn in much the same way.  _ Please don’t think of me as a freak, please don’t attack me, please don’t- _

Jyn brought his hand up to her cheek and she nestled into it like a caress. Her eyes squinted subtly with joy as her lips curled up, and she said, softly, “Thank you. For saving me.”

It was Cassian’s turn to tilt his head at her, and he tried yet again to say something in English. “No,” he said, but his response had a lilt to it, the word more a question than a firm denial, as though he were trying to state his confusion at how to converse with her. He marveled at how much more clearly his voice came across now that his vocal cords vibrated in dry air- he  _ actually _ sounded a bit more like a human.

She seemed to have understood what he was trying to get at; her brows started furrowing, and she looked down at the water and stared distantly at it. Her face- and most especially her lips- contorted in contemplation with a hint of frustration as she tried to find a way to communicate with him more effectively.

Her eyes lit up and she looked back at him, and the sudden spark in her eyes caused Cassian’s heart to skip a beat and his tail to twitch underwater. She swam even closer, her body pressing against his, and he could feel her warmth despite the cold waters surrounding them. He wasn’t sure what to expect from her with her body so close to his, but before he became aware of his actions, he was already clutching her shirt and pulling her more firmly against him to keep her close. Her legs brushed against his tail, but rather than recoiling or curving away from her, his tail curled forward, letting her toes brush back and forth against the scales of his lower body.

She tapped on her own jaw, as if to ask Cassian for permission, and when he nodded in understanding, she caressed his jawline while gazing right at him. He notices the small, golden flecks in her eyes, sparkling like the sands glistening through the morning rays as they float through the kelp green. He marveled at how they were a vibrant color that matched the ocean he’s lived in his whole life; he never expected to see it in a fresh perspective, much less from a human.

Cassian became aware of the way she continued to close the distance between them; her mouth opened slightly and her lips brushed against his, shyly at first, and he parted his slightly in to welcome her presence. He felt her breath hot on his lips before she pressed more firmly, with more feeling, and with finality as they kissed. His arms wrapped around her body fully as her lower legs enclosed slightly around his tail, and they clung to each other, refusing to let the ocean drift them apart.

He finally understood that this was a gesture of gratitude, and he in turn deepened the kiss to reciprocate his gratitude to have met her.

Any doubts he had about wanting to be up above, part of her world, had dissipated and evaporated into thin air. He wanted this. He wanted to be fully human like her, to be as warm and colorful as her, to  be _with_ her.

Jyn may be an alluring, yet vicious sailor he's come to observe over the years, but rather than being fearful that she would one day consume him and tear him apart, he felt instead like he could live harmoniously with her: a shrimp living in a sea anemone.

He doesn’t quite want to say it out loud- he’s afraid to use the word to describe how he felt towards her in that moment, or to explain why his tail started to fluoresce. Instead, he presses the thought of the word harder against her lips, burying the the word deeper into her as he held her tighter.

His tail fluoresces more brightly this time, but rather than feeling embarrassed by it or attempting to hide it, he threw out every last care he had left in the seven seas and let the glow surround them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience as I finally wrap up this fic! I don't really plan to take it any further than this, because all I wanted to do was get this bit written in and call it a day. If I ever come up with a full-fledged plot past this point, then perhaps I'll get to it, but if anyone would like to continue the story from here, please do so! I'd love to see what people would come up with in this universe (and I actually already have a bonus chapter in mind within this AU, which I'll write and post later).


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